Dear Elif,
An interesting question. I suspect that the issue of dating may not have
been pursued with much subtlety in our field (I hope subsequent replies
prove me wrong). In this case, I don't mean the detective work involved in
discovering a date (which perhaps is at the heart of your question), but the
concept of the date in itself.
Many datasets concerning design objects (or any other artefacts indeed,
Terry) force the historian, curator or whoever to choose a single date,
whereas of course objects often embody designs that develop over a period,
have other versions, are made in 1980 but were designed in 1930, etc.
Systems also frequently force the appearance of certainty when in fact a
date is in doubt, or force an unrealistic level of precision. Digital
systems probably cause more damage in this respect than old-fashioned
file-cards where there was the opportunity to "chat" about the uncertainties
and other subtleties of dating before the user jumped to conclusions about
the date.
Digital Humanities people are beginning to take an interest in what they
perceive as the inadequacies of rigid timeline approaches borrowed from
other disciplines - though I am pretty confident in guessing that those
other disciplines also find rigid timelines limiting.
A paper with a few thoughts on these problems by Florian Kräutli, PhD
student, and myself is available here: http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/1622/
So we don't annoy everyone else on the list who may not find this as
fascinating as I do, perhaps we can discuss off-list?
Best wishes,
Stephen
Stephen Boyd Davis
Professor of Design Research
School of Design
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU
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From: Elif Kocabiyik <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and
related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, 9 July 2014 17:42
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [PHD-DESIGN] Dating methodologies in design history research
> Dear All,
>
> I am a researcher at Izmir University of Economics in the
> Department of Industrial Design who is working on methodologies for dating
> design objects (or artifacts) within my broader research interests in design
> history and design history methods. These artifacts can be a collection of
> objects, labels, etc. as well as individual objects. Furthermore, I
> am also interested in dating methodologies used in
> different fields and disciplines (e.g. Art History, Archeology,
> Anthropology).
>
> I am contacting you all with the hopes that you
> would be willing to share information on important studies and
> references on this subject matter. I appreciate any assistance that can be
> provided.
>
> Thank you for your consideration.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Dr. Elif Kocabžyžk
> Izmir University of Economics
> Department of Industrial Design
>
>
>
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